Referee: Graham Poll
(Hertfordshire). Bottled out of the big decision over Cahill, but did
his best not to interrupt play without good reason - are you watching
Mr Rennie?

Poll had any
number of dives, kicks and assaults to punish the deeply unpleasant
Australian for, but having already booked him for a foul, Cahill then sent
Bowyer sprawling as he approached the Everton box.

Incredibly no foul
was given and you have to say that the referee bottled it, knowing that he
would have had to have sent off the notorious midfielder. A sneaky knee to
the side of Charles N'Zogbia's head as he fell should have had Cahill
already seeing red.

Attendance: 51,916
- quiet again for large passages of play, but roared their approval of
the Peruvian's magic.

Half time hero: Peter Beardsley,
who was joined at pitchside by former Auf Weidersehen Pet trio
Jimmy Nail, Kevin Whateley and Tim Healy for a charity cheque
presentation.

Goals

Half time: Newcastle 0 Everton 0

64 mins Man of the moment
N'Zogbia was once again the architect, picking up an Emre pass before
striding into the box and sending over a low centre for Solano to
slide into the ball into the Leazes end net from a few yards out1-0

76 mins Some slick passing around
the edge of the visitor's box culminated in Bowyer's pass to Solano
on the right hand edge. The Peruvian cut inside and clipped a
glorious right -footed curler with the outside of his boot, beyond
Westerveld into the far corner of the goal 2-0.

Full time: Newcastle 2 Everton 0

We Said

Glenn Roeder commented:

"Emre
said to us that he just needed a run of games to show what he
can do. He came in today unwell. He'd been sick overnight and
was feeling drained.

"We
discussed whether he'd play, start on the bench or not be
involved at all.

"But
if he'd started as a substitute then everyone would be asking
'Why is Emre on the bench?' so we told him to go out there and
give it his best shot. He is a great technical player and is
very gifted."

On the improvement in his defence:

"They were playing as
individuals. I was surprised the first few times I worked with
them. There was no communication.

“They all speak English, but they
weren’t talking to each other. Where I come from, as a former centre half, I
don’t know how you can play as a defender without giving information and
covering each other’s backs. It is that simple. I have a background working
with Terry Venables — he is so much better than everyone else — and he
always started preparing by making sure you don’t concede.”

On Nobby's sensational second strike:

"He
actually scored an even better one in training. I work with
him everyday and that wasn't a fluke. He knew exactly what he
was doing. At 1-0, I never had any doubt whatsoever that we'd
lose the game.

On
Parker's omission from the latest England squad:

"I'm
surprised and disappointed by the decision but it would be
wrong of me to choose someone else's team. Parker would not
look out of place alongside the likes of Frank Lampard and
Steven Gerrard.

"He's
a real player and there are 51,000 supporters here who think
he's wonderful.

"Like
Alan Shearer, he's the kind of person who would sulk if he
lost at Tiddlywinks and to be a winner, you've got to be a
desperate loser.

On his own future:

"I don't know if I'll be involved next week, but
the only huge achievement we can make next week is beating
Bolton and taking three points from them.

"If you start looking
beyond that, you trip up very quickly. Football is just that
sort of game and scientifically, you can't say why.

"If you start saying
'I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that in a few weeks'
time or next month', you don't get there because you don't get
the results that lead up to those games.

"If I'm in charge
next week, we will work hard and do the professional job we
have done on all the teams we have played to try to beat
Bolton here next week.

"We are only thinking about winning as many games as we
can. Every game has to be a final for us from now until the
end of the season."

They Said

David Moyes said:

"When I spoke to the players afterwards
you could see how disappointed they were.
During the game you could see the confidence through them and we thought that we
could take something from this game.

"But if
you'd have given me just one defeat from this run nine games ago, I'd have taken
it.

"We had
about 10 players out, through our own fault, so I had to make changes.

"The
goalkeeper only had one save to make. He did well but didn't really have a great
deal to do.

"Joseph (Yobo)
was playing at right-back and that's not his position.

"I
didn't think we were under a great deal of pressure.

"I
thought we were relatively comfortable. I have said to the players they have
played well but we have not come away with any points. We are just disappointed
that we couldn't take something from it.

"The run
we have been on has been great and if you had said to me nine games ago we would
have only had one defeat, we would have taken it.

"Until
the goal we were comfortable. I didn't think we were ever really in danger and
still felt we offered the biggest threat of scoring. But we didn't get the goals
we maybe should have.

"I just
felt the first goal we conceded was a poor one. We had a chance to play
ourselves in at the edge of the box but we chose not to and from that it
resulted in them breaking up the park and scoring. That was the biggest
disappointment.

"The
first goal in so many games - and maybe even more so with Everton - is vital.
But I did feel that we could quite easily get back in the game.

"I felt
our play was good enough. I thought the confidence was there and the self-belief
too. But we just couldn't finish off the opportunities we had. We had a couple
headed off the line in the first half, which on another day if you get them
changes the whole complexion of the game."

Stats

This was our 150th game against the Toffees and our 61st victory
(31 drawn, 58 lost).

Debutant Matty Pattison appeared in injury time for Newcastle,
becoming the 120th player that we've used in the Premiership
(not including Craig Moore, who is still to make his competitive
debut.)

Third and fourth goals of the season for Nobby Solano, who now
has 42 goals in our colours, since opening his account against
Wimbledon back in November 1998.

And the nine strikes to his name from his "lost" period at
Villa mean that his opener for us against Everton saw him reach the half-century
mark in English football.

There was an element of Deja Vu about in this
game, the Peruvian having netted past Sander Westerveld the last time
the Dutch 'keeper had played at SJP.

That came as Liverpool were beaten 2-1 here back in November 2000,
Solano opening the scoring, again at the Leazes End.

Waffle

After finding
themselves in something of a cul-de-sac earlier in the week, Glenn Roeder's
revitalised United renewed their forward progress on Saturday night, at the expense of what had
been a similarly resurgent Everton side.

And in what is becoming an increasingly positive period of the season, it was
pleasing to note that the caretaker manager and his team were able secure the
victory despite being hamstrung by injuries in similar fashion to his
predecessor.

Short-handed in defence and attack, Roeder avoiding moaning about his plight and
instead went about augmenting his side's increasing confidence with some
commonsense tactical tweaks.

Wonderful it wasn't, but quietly impressive it certainly was.

Midfielders getting forward to boost the attack and popping up at the back to
make crucial clearances and defenders well, defending. One goal conceded in
five games is perhaps an even more unexpected statistic than our four wins and
one draw in that sequence.

Where Curbishley had stifled our five-man midfield by deploying the same number
against them, David Moyes saw his side left short-handed in that area - partly
due to the half-fit Lee Carsley only appearing for the final quarter of an hour
and the presence of ex-mackem waster Kilbane on the field.

If there was a shortcoming, it was in our attempts at beating stand-in
goalkeeper Westerveld - especially in the opening half.

Having seen Ameobi manage to wrap himself round a goalpost as he vainly tried to
reach a tempting cross in the opening seconds, it took until time added on at
the end of the half for another genuine scoring chance.

Then, Solano was denied by a fingertip stop to turn his full-throttle and
rising strike over the crossbar.

However the Peruvian was to prevail after the break, as we twice moved forward
with menace - some slick passing firstly allowing him to convert from close
range and then clip home a perfectly -flighted effort to seal the win.

The relief that greeted both of those goals was fulsome, from players, fans and
officials alike.

But it's a fine line - had we failed to score for a second successive game, then
questions would doubtless have been asked of the caretaker manager, who omitted
Luque completely and left Chopra on the bench.

Roeder doubtless had an anxious moment when Shola stayed down early on, but
things had gone his way so much that he was able to send on Matty Pattison for
his debut in the final seconds of the contest - the youngster having made the
bench ahead of Luque.

Like the Spaniard, Pattison has returned from a serious injury, but unlike the
former Deportivo man he's put in the effort in training and built his fitness up
with nine games in the reserves - that's nine more than Luque, by the
way.

Beattie and Yobo went close at the end but the victory never looked in serious
doubt as the toothless Toffees only briefly threatened to ruin our fourth clean sheet in five games.

While whispers of Roeder being in consideration for February's Manager of the
Month award are pleasing, a look at the fixture list would be advised before
indulging in wild talk of UEFA Cup places or similar.

Bolton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs lie immediately ahead in the Premiership - a
quartet of clubs who all notched convincing 2-0 victories against us in our
meetings earlier in the season. And somewhere in amongst those four is that FA
Cup tie - hardly light relief, but it's not meant to be easy.

But at least we look capable of competing and when the manager and players
talk about having a real go in games, their words no longer have a hollow ring.